If you're like me, Wikipedia is your go-to site for all things research and definition. Read something in an article you don't understand? Wikipedia! Friend use an obscure TLA? Wikipedia! There is almost no end to the community edited encyclopedia's usefulness. Most visits I make to Wikipedia are just quick fact checking and the like, but every now and then I am pressed to do some good old fashioned actual research; the kind grandpa used to do in the library. For those situations, Pathway is my new best friend. Pathway is a desktop interface for Wikipedia that not only lets you view wiki pages, but keeps a history of the pages you view, and displays your history in a sexy-sexy data map. I've only just started playing with Pathway, but its sleek look, original features, and light usage footprint have already earned it a cozy new home in my Applications folder.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-26-2006 @ 6:19PM
John Russell said...
The only reason I use Firefox is for the quicksearch feature.
Which I use practically only for looking up things on Wikipedia.
This program should be great. Maybe I won't need Firefox any more.
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9-26-2006 @ 6:36PM
Yuri Walkiw said...
Looks neat.
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9-26-2006 @ 7:25PM
Query said...
I'd like to see more integration with Wikipedia, like being able to search Wikipedia articles in the application (rather than pages already in your history), and adding pages from the web browser part. Maybe even something like stripping all of the other Wikipedia things away, leaving behind everything except for the main content, and integrate the nav and such into the app itself.
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9-26-2006 @ 7:44PM
icruise said...
I can't help but be disturbed when I hear people talking about doing "research" on Wikipedia as if it were on par with an actual library, or, you know, something where the level of scholarship isn't totally random.
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9-26-2006 @ 8:58PM
BM5k said...
People who are quick to discredit wikipedia disturb me. The fact is, there is almost no greater research tool available. While researching any topic, it is the first place I look to find information. While the articles may not be 100% factual, you are almost always presented with enough knowledge to continue research elsewhere. Just because there are no paid fact checkers, that almost anyone can edit almost anything does not mean every article is a fact-less flame war.
Do I use wikipedia on a daily basis, yes. Would I use it as my only source on a research paper, no. But then again, I wouldn't use any one source exclusively either.
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9-27-2006 @ 3:01AM
pixelbender said...
Do those that discredit is not use the sources as the bottom to verify info?
I mean, I love it when I go to wiki and come up with 4 or more sources in a single page.
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9-27-2006 @ 12:04PM
alxtoth said...
I am using Wikipedia a lot for quickly finding algorithms and other CompSci stuff. Of course Wikipedia does not contain everything, but the text and links are relevant, and they really evolve from month to month. It happens a lot I'm reading up the same articles over and over (after understanding ..), so web archives make sense.
I haven't try Pathway yet (don't have a Mac at work), but I suppose its based on WebKit=Safari. One feature I'm missing is good search-as-you-type, and this makes me use Camino. I'm curious how Spotlight works instead .
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10-04-2006 @ 4:43PM
Targuman said...
(1) Wikipedia is ok as a starting point but it has flaws and should never be the last step in any research (serious or otherwise). I am a big fun, but it needs to be used judiciously.
(2) I LOVE this app! Aside from the fact that it has already been made this should be in the great App competition mentioned elsewhere.
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10-29-2006 @ 3:39PM
PeiPei said...
The link in this post is broken, the link should be: http://pathway.screenager.be/features/
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